


Bon voyage

by orphan_account



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: First Kiss, Flower Crowns, Fluff, Friendship, Kili is dead, M/M, Thorin is unstable, Travels, True Love, but this is actually a fluffy fic I swear, randomness and fluff, the entwives are still there, they're playing a game, this is a pretty random fic of randomness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-25
Updated: 2014-02-27
Packaged: 2018-01-13 19:17:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,233
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1237918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Thorin refused to let them get engaged, Ori and Fili ran away together. And together they travel the world and make friends</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to read a fluffy Ori/Fili fic but I couldn't fin one so I wrote one?  
> I'm not even sure it's that fluffy, sorry?D: And there's no real plot or anything, just. The boys being happy?  
> There's not enough of Fili being happy in the fandom, and that's a real shame.

They hadn’t run away. Ori was quite insistent on that, because words _mattered_ . They had _not_ run away.

They had taken their lives into their own hands.

Some days, Fili wondered if it had been the right thing to do. But it would have been too difficult to stay in Erebor with Kili gone even under normal circumstances… and the circumstances hadn’t been normal to say the least. Thorin had had no right to refuse Fili’s engagement to Ori, but he still had, just as he had refused him anything that wasn’t directly linked to working for the good of Erebor… and his definition of that just wasn’t Fili’s. The former prince wondered some days if it had been selfish of him to leave the kingdom in the sole hands of a king who couldn’t tell friend from foe, and treated everyone as if they might stab him in the back. But since no one else had dared to protest, maybe Erebor did deserve such a king after all…

“You’re doing again,” Ori grumbled sleepily, huddling close to Fili, even though it wasn’t that cold. “You’re _thinking_ again.”

Fili laughed quietly, and kissed his lover’s head, pulling him even closer.

“Don’t you usually complain that I’m not thinking enough? You should decide what you want, love.”

“I want you to sleep, right now,” Ori yawned. “No thinking that you’re doing at that time of the night can be good. That’s the thing, see. I don’t just want you to think more, I want you to think better.”

“You ask too much of me.”

“Hm… then just sleep. No thinking is better than bad thinking.”

Fili laughed again, and tried to obey.

It was true that he had his doubts some days… but one look at Ori was enough to melt them away.

  


The first time they got in trouble with wild wargs, Fili thought he would do most of the fighting. They had left Erebor in a bit of a hurry, and hadn’t been able to get weapons for Ori, whereas Fili himself had always more blade than needed hidden everywhere.

It had been a surprise when Ori had killed a warg that had crept up behind him. It had been even more surprising to see that the killing had been done using a short sword that Fili had never seen before. He hadn’t had too much time to wonder about it though, because there was a pack of wargs trying to kill them. But even in the heat of the battle, the former prince couldn’t help but notice that Ori didn’t know how to use his weapon, beside the very obvious “put pointy end until other creature repeatedly until it stops moving”.

If they survived, he’d have to do something about that.

And they did survive, because a small pack of wild wargs wasn’t so scary compared to some other things they’d fought in the past. Fili was more than happy to let his lover tend his wounds, especially since Ori was a very caring nurse who spent more time kissing him than actually putting bandages where they were needed.

“I’m not sure Oin would endorse your methods,” Fili pointed out when Ori kissed a bruise on his ribs.

“And I do hope you wouldn’t let Oin cure you like that,” came the reply. “I’d be hurt if you let anyone try that on you.”

Fili laughed, and pulled Ori up to kiss his lips.

“Only you, I promise. You are the only one I want, now and forever.”

“Well, what a happy coincidence. It so happens that you’re the only one I want too.”

Fili kissed him again.

“We really should do something about that, you know.”

“Agreed,” Ori said with a serious little nod. “How about we drop everything and start travelling the world, just the two of us?”

“Sounds like a plan. But for now, I’m awfully cold. Must be the blood loss and all that… mind keeping me warm?”

Ori snorted, but he pressed his entirely clothed body’s against Fili’s half naked one. The former prince hadn’t been that cold to begin with, but he now felt more than warm. Then Ori set out to rid them of all their clothing, and cold was the very last thing Fili could have felt.

The morning after, as they were cleaning their little camp and making ready for another day of walking, Fili remembered Ori’s sword, and asked him about it.

“It was a present from Nori. You know how he is with knives and things like that. He would marry his daggers if it were legal.”

The image of Nori trying to tie a courting braid on the handle of a knife popped up in Fili’s brain, and he couldn’t help a giggle. When he told Ori about it, his laughed snorted, and swore he would draw it first chance he had.

“He’ll love it, I’m sure,” Fili claimed. “Though I’m a little cross at him right now. He shouldn’t have given you a sword, and then not taught you how to use it. That’s not right.”

“I know how to use it!”

“Love, you use it like you would use a hammer. Let me tell you this: that’s not how you fight with a sword.”

Ori blushed, and glared at Fili. “It still works, doesn’t it?”

Feeling he hadn’t phrased it too well, Fili bit his lip. The last thing he wanted was to make Ori feel as if he thought badly of him. Ori was a very good fighter when he wanted to. Only, not with a sword.

“It works, and you saved my life yesterday,” Fili admitted. “And you are so good with a hammer, it’s logical that you’d use a sword that way… and it can work but only up to a point, and I want you to be as safe as possible, and capable of fighting for yourself.”

And that was the right thing to say apparently. It earned him a kiss at least, and that was all Fili wanted from life, honestly. Kisses from Ori.

And keeping Ori as safe as possible, so he did manage to convince his lover that a few lessons couldn’t hurt. They didn’t move camp until afternoon that day, and for all the following weeks, they made sure to stop early so Ori could have time to practice with his sword. He was tolerably good at it, learning quickly, but he had little taste for the art of fencing, and Fili quickly understood that his lover would never get to his level. He didn’t really mind. It wouldn’t have been as interesting if they’d loved the exact same things after all.

But one question remained about Ori’s sword.

“How come I had never seen it before that day with the wargs?” Fili asked one night after a training session that had somehow devolved into a making out session when they’d fallen on the ground.

“I kept it hidden,” was Ori’s answer.

“I assumed as much, yeah. But hidden where? It’s not big, but it’s not that small ever, and I’ve never even seen it when you undress, so…”

“I am a dwarf of many secrets,” Ori retorted, with a smirk that made him look a little like Nori. “I bet you’d never know how many knives I have on me right now.”

“None. I’d have felt them,” Fili claimed, just as one of his hand found its way under Ori’s tunic again.

It came as a bit of a shock when Ori pulled two small knives from his sleeves. Then it was three beautiful daggers from his tunic, another one from his cloak, and yet again knives from his boots.

“That’s more than expected,” Fili admitted, staring at the blades he’d never noticed in six months of travelling and sleeping together.

“There’s more,” Ori proudly announced. “If you can find them, you’ll get something nice.”

“Something nice?” Fili repeated, taking the obvious excuse to grope his lover’s body.

“A treat,” the other dwarf whispered, licking his lips, and that was all the encouragement the former prince needed.

He didn’t find the other small weapons that Ori hid on himself. But since he’d made such efforts trying to find them, he got his treat anyway.

And then, Ori showed him how to keep daggers on him so that no elves could ever find them.

  


They often came through the shire. For one thing, it was nice to see Bilbo again, who was a wonderful friend, and seemed just as happy to see them. And for another thing, it was easy to make business there, and to prepare for travels in wilder places. Hobbits traded them with all sorts of food or good clothes, and they did so with incredible good humour. They didn’t seem to mind that Fili wasn’t that great of a smith, nor that Ori had never properly finished his apprenticeship. The sheer exoticism of having a door handle or a portrait made by an actual, authentic dwarf was more than enough for them.

“Everyone is very jealous that you always come to stay with me of course,” Bilbo told them one evening while they sat by the fire after dinner. “I’ve been asked if you wanted to maybe stay somewhere else from times to times. My cousin Lobelia is very fond of you, Ori. She says you have a very tolerable handwriting, and that if people out of the Shire are as polite as the two of you, then maybe it can be excused that some people like to travel.”

Fili laughed heartily, and Ori sniggered, trying to disguise it as a cough.

“That is quite the praise,” the former prince said. “I wonder if her husband is of a same mind, though. Not sure he would like two handsome, strong dwarves in the same house as his pretty young wife.”

“Oh, the entire Sire knows the two of you are married, so he wouldn’t worry,” Bilbo assured him. “Though there is some discussion going on about which one of you is a woman. I’ve been offered all sorts of things by people who want to know. I think there are even bets going on. Most people seem to think Ori is the lady, though.”

“Can’t blame them,” Fili retorted, which earned him an elbow in the ribs. “What? You are prettier than me, it’s just a fact. And since they’ve never walking in on us, these poor people have no idea that you’re more likely to tie me up and hmf!”

Ori, red as a beetle, had pressed both hands against his lover’s mouth to stop him from speaking. It worked, but only until Fili started licking at his fingers, prompting a very undignified squeal from Ori, and a loud laughter from Bilbo.

The hobbit was glad that they came to see him so often. The entire smial seemed that much more alive when they were there with him. He would have asked them to say, if he hadn’t known already the answer. They had left Erebor because it had seemed the only way to be together, but they had fallen in love with travelling almost as much as they were in love with each other.

But they had mentioned wanting to go to Rivendell, and maybe he’d go with them.

It had been a while since he’d seen lord Elrond, and _someone_ had to make sure that the children didn’t only eat meat and chips.

  


In the first twenty years, they secretly came back to Erebor twice. The first time was for Nori’s wedding, because it would have taken a threat a lot more frightening than Thorin to keep Ori from seeing his brother married to the love of his life.

The second time was for a wedding too. Thorin’s, to a noble dwarrowdam from the Iron Hills. No one talked about the way she was obviously so heavily pregnant on the day of the ceremony. She had an air about her that made it clear that her state was not to be discussed. So instead, people said how happy the king looked with her by her side. How sane.

Ori feared for a time that Fili would want to claim back his title as prince, now that Thorin was less likely to refuse their union. And the scribe would not have stopped his lover, no matter how much he had grown to love travelling, because he knew sometimes Fili felt guilty for having abandoned his position, his duty…

But five days after the royal wedding, Fili announced that he really wanted to have a look at the Orocarni, and started talking of what they would need to get there.

“They don’t need me anymore,” he explained with an air of delight and wonder the like of which Ori had rarely seen. “Thorin has a new heir on the way, on that is his most direct descendant. I’m not the heir anymore. _I will never be king_!”

It was as if all his worries, all his fears had melted away. Ori had never seen him so happy before, and it made him happy too, especially if it meant more travels ahead of them.

  


They got to the Orocarni, and beyond. The East was a strange place, where dwarves, men and elves were as dark skinned as the orcs who lived among them. It had been a shock, that. Nothing had prepared them to the sight of a band of orcs entering a human village and make business there, trading furs and pearls, honey and spices, but in the East it was accepted, normal even.

They didn’t stay there long. Each orc they met reminded Fili of his brother, and nightmares of the battle plagued him until Ori decided that it was enough, and they headed back West. It had been so long since they had last seen Bilbo, Ori was sure he must have missed them.

It was on their way back that they met the Ents. They were tall, strange creature, with the odd beauty of elderly trees. The first one they met was called Fimbrethil, and seemed rather stunned when they stumbled upon the ents’ forest.

“There has not been a dwarf here in many years,” she told them with slow, deep voice that reminded Fili of a peaceful river. “We see an elf, here and there, but only from a distance.”

“We got lost,” Fili explained.

“The nearest settlement is at least three weeks from here.”

“We’re really not too good with directions.”

“ _You’re_ not good with directions!” Ori protested. “I told you we were going the wrong way, and I told you that we should have stayed on the road. I guess we’ve at least found someone who can give us directions.”

Fili threw his lover a dirty look, but he didn’t even try to defend his honour. Aboveground, he was just as bad as his uncle, no matter how good he was at finding his way in mines and tunnels of any sort.

“I will help you back to the road,” Fimbrethil promised. “But not now, not now… it has been so long since we had visitors. You must come, and tell us news of the world… it has been many years since we came to live here, and though it is safer than our last home, we do not see many people. There are entlings here that never saw any two legged creatures. You must come, so that they might understand what our oldest songs are about.”

Since they had nowhere else to be, and were as intrigued by the ents and the ents were by them, Ori and Fili agreed to stay.

The ents, it turned out, were strange but kind creatures. They were slow and poised, but not in the way elves were. Elves were slow because they seemed to think it put them above mortal creatures, and because they knew no other way to be. But ent, Fili felt, were slow because they enjoyed it that way, because it allowed them to watch trees grow and hear mountains shift. The ents’ slowness gave them access to a form of beauty that the two dwarves couldn’t really understand, though Fili thought that Bilbo might have. Hobbits understood better than dwarves the joy of watching something alive grow from the ground.

It was many months before they left the ents, and even then, Fimbrethil made them promise that they would come again, as often as they could.

“You are merry companions,” she said, “and your music makes our songs sound new. We will miss you until you are back.”

“Then we will come again for sure,” Fili assured her. “You have my word, and dwarves keep to their words.”

“Hmm… we shall wait for you. And if you ever meet other ents, and they ask you about the entwives… do not tell them where we are. So far, we are winning our little game of hide and seek with the enthusbands, and we do not want to see it end just yet.”

Ori and Fili promised, wondering just how long that game had been going on. In the end, they decided it was no business of theirs.

  


“Where were you when you did that portrait?” Lobelia asked Ori. “I’ve never seen flowers like that.”

Ori stopped braiding her hair, and looked over her shoulder at the notebook that she was holding. He couldn’t help a blush when he saw a portrait of Fili that he’d done while they were with the Ents. There was only the former prince’s head, wearing a heavy flower crown.

What Lobelia couldn’t know, but Ori did, was that when he’d drawn that, Fili had worn nothing but these flowers, and that the entire time he’d posed, he’d told awful jokes and made terrible innuendos, until Ori had dropped his notebook to join him.

“We were in the East,” he just told the hobbit. “They have different plants there.”

“I see. Of course, flowers from here are much nicer, you know.”

“I’m sure they are,” Ori told her.

Two days later, Fili and him were ambushed by a bunch of hobbits who had business with their hair. Apparently, Lobelia had told all her friends about that portrait of Fili, and they had all felt personally insulted by the idea that some stranger at the other end of the world had made better flower crowns than theirs. And when they were done, they demanded that Ori drew his lover, and made it very clear that should they go East again, they should show their friends there was a real flower crown was like.

“Maybe we should do it,” Fili laughed later on, picking fallen petals from his lover’s hair. “I’m sure Fimbrethil would appreciate their work.”

“Or she might see it as a challenge. Do you want to start a war of flowers between hobbits and ents?”

Fili sniggered at the thought, then sobered up when he remembered the probably centuries old game the ents had with their husbands.

“Maybe it wouldn’t be such a good idea,” he admitted. “Still you look lovely with flowers on your head.”

“I just need curly hair, and I’d look like a hobbit.”

“A very hairy hobbit,” Fili assured. “A handsome, hairy hobbit.”

“Oh, just shut up,” Ori sniggered, grabbing his braids to pull him close and kiss him.

  


They went back to see the ents every few years, until they knew the way by heart. They never tried again to get to the Orocarni, but sometimes they travelled South, to the kingdoms of men. They even went as far as Minas Tirith once, and after some negotiations and befriending, Ori was allowed in the royal library.

Fili had rarely seen him so happy. He looked like a dwarfing in a sweets shop, breathless and gasping at every single thing he saw. At first, the former prince tried to stay with him, but that soon turned out to be boring for him. Many of the books were of little interest to him, supposing they were even in a language that he understood, and so he had little to do. Ori was quick to notice it though, and he simply suggested that Fili might be interested in meeting local smiths and musicians.

They only stayed a few weeks in there, but they enjoyed every moment of it. Fili learned to play on his violin as many news songs as he could, and he modified a few of them so that he’d be singing about Ori, rather than some human maiden. It always embarrassed his lover greatly, but since Ori was terribly pretty with a blush, Fili didn’t mind so much. And Ori himself didn’t seem to angry either. When Fili was done playing music, the would lie together in bed, and Ori would tell him of the latest things he’d read, be it great history or funny tales.

Fili was almost certain that if he’d tried to read them himself, they would have bore him to death. But Ori had a way of bringing to life even the dullest stories. He could have read a list of all descendants of the Seven Fathers, and Fili would still have been delighted to hear him.

Ori laughed when he told him that.

“Be careful, I might be tempted to do it, next time we’re in Erebor,” he teased. “Though be warned, I think a lifetime might not be enough to read all of it. We’ll have died of old age before reaching the end.”

“Then I’d spend the rest of my life hearing your voice,” Fili sighed, pulling his lover closer. “There are worse fates.”

“You are ridiculous.”

“More like ridiculously in love. And you do have a lovely voice. I like to hear it. Who can blame me?”

“You are tired and talking nonsense,” Ori accused him, but he gently kissed Fili’s lips, then again, a little less gently when Fili’s hands found their way under his night clothes. They stayed like that a while, trading kisses that grew more heated every time, not daring to do more for fear someone would hear them. The owners and other clients of the inn didn’t seem to mind that they were two men sharing a single room, since they were dwarves, but humans sometimes had strange ideas about some things, and they hadn’t made love one in all their time in Minas Tirith.

With any other lover, Fili would have found it frustrating. Even with Ori, there were times when he wished they could just indulge themselves and not pay attention to the world… But these times were the exception rather than the rule, and most of the time he was happy just to be close to his lover.

“You’re thinking again,” Ori complained, before biting his ear.

“I do that sometimes, yes. Should I apologize?”

“Yes. And you’re going to have to be very convincing if you want me to forgive you, so better get to work.”

Fili sniggered, and to prove just how very sorry he was, he started to kiss every inch of skin on Ori’s body, paying a special attention to the places where his lover was ticklish.

His last coherent thought was that, if someone had told him when he still lived in Ered Luin that someday he’d renounce his title as heir to the throne to go make out with a mere scribe in Gondor, he’d have laughed to their face and call them mad. Something like this had never been part of any plan Fili’d had for his life.

And he was ever so glad that things hadn’t worked out the way he’d expected.

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> how Fili and Ori came together  
> (pre-quest fluff uwu)

Fili was in love, and Kili found it hilarious. Mostly because all of Fili’s attempts to make his feelings know had failed spectacularly.

The eldest prince’s first attempt at letting Ori know that he liked him had been through music. It was generally admitted by all who knew him that Fili was a very talented violinist, and most of the few lovers he’d had, he had conquered by serenading them. He tried the same thing with Ori. The young scribe seemed to enjoy it well enough, and it wasn’t rare for him to shyly request for this or that song. When Fili was very lucky, he managed to convince Ori to sing while he played, but that didn’t happen too often. The younger dwarf was shy, and since Kili was often with them (“I’m chaperoning”) it didn’t help.

Still, when one day Fili poured all his heart and love into a piece he’d invented specifically for Ori, his eyes never leaving the scribe, he was sure that it would work. By the time he finished playing, they were both blushing, and Ori looked a little breathless. Kili, who was once again with them, looked very uncomfortable, but Fili didn’t care. Of course he was uncomfortable. He’d just been present during the most heartfelt love declaration his brother had ever dared, and if he’d had any brains he would have left them alone.

“That was so beautiful,” Ori sighed, avoiding Fili’s eyes.

“You liked it, then?”

“Oh, yes! There’s magic in your fingers, Fili!”

The prince smiled, his brain racing to find a way to put his love in words now, while not saying anything that Kili would use to tease him later on. But before he could find something, Ori spoke again.

“You’re so good at everything,” he sighed sadly. “When you find yourself a girlfriend, she’ll be the luckiest girl in the world.”

Fili frowned and felt his stomach twist, but then Kili burst out laughing. Fili felt his face burn, in anger at his brother for finding any merriness in the situation, in embarrassment that his musical declaration had failed so much. But most of it was anger. It would have been much easier to deal with the situation if Kili hadn’t been with them so often… but before he could kick out his brother, Ori announced he had to leave, because he had just remembered something urgent he had to do. Fili didn’t try to stop him.

But as soon as he was alone with his brother, he turned toward Kili, ready to shout at him… but Kili didn’t let him.

“You’re gonna _have_ to be alone with him,” the younger prince announced. “I swear, I thought it was just you being shit at flirting, but he’s just as bad. I think even Thorin would have gotten it if someone had dropped that many hints at him.”

“I’ve been _asking_ for weeks that you leave us alone,” Fili grunted.

“Yeah, but mom ordered me not to, ‘cause she’s afraid you’ll be making out with him the second the two of you are alone,” Kili explained, and his brother blushed even harder at the idea that his mother knew of his feelings for Ori. “Obviously, it’s not going to happen though. Damn, if you two stay like this, you’ll be lucky to have kissed once before you die, I swear. So I’m going to help you, and I’ll leave the two of you alone sometimes. What do you say?”

“I say what’s the catch?”

Kili grinned.

“The catch is you owe me one, and if I get in trouble one day, you’ll have to cover for me. Deal?”

Fili shrugged, and nodded. He pretty much always covered for Kili anyway, just as his brother did for him. It wouldn’t be such a big change. Kili’s grin widened.

“Perfect. And now, let me share with you the very terribly awesome plan I’ve come up with to help you to finally shag your boyfriend.”

  


Ori didn’t have a crush on Fili because it would have been stupid because Fili was so handsome and funny and wonderful and perfect, and someone like Ori just didn’t have a chance with him. So he didn’t have a crush.

He was in terrible danger of falling in love, but he didn’t have a crush.

It was that piece Fili had played on his violin that had made Ori aware of the problem. It had been the most beautiful thing he’d ever heard, so full of emotions, like a love declaration put into notes… and as soon as that idea had crossed Ori’s brain, his next thought had been to wish the song were for him. Which wasn’t really a good thought to have at all. Because there was no way Fili could ever have such feelings for him. Because Fili was perfect and Ori was Ori.

Although there had been a few things that sometimes made him wonder… because Fili sure always found reasons to be touching him, and he was always so kind (though he was kind with everyone. See above: Fili is perfect) and he so often praised Ori’s work when he was writing or drawing.

As he did one afternoon, a couple days after what Ori privately called the violin incident. Fili was almost blushing as he praised Ori’s talent with words.

“Could use that myself,” the prince said, dropping to sit right near Ori on the floor, even though there was plenty of space. “Kili’s the one who’s good with words, he always knows right what to say. Not that he ever uses it for anything useful, but still… I envy him, you know?”

Ori nodded, though he wasn’t sure there was much to envy. Kili just made a lot of dirty jokes, as far as he knew. They were good dirty jokes, and once he’d even made Nori blush, but they were still just dirty jokes. Though it was very likely that Kili was capable of using his brain for other things sometimes. Maybe.

“That’s why I need your help,” Fili announced, managing to move even closer to Ori, somehow. “See, there’s this person I like…”

It was like a cold shower, like a mine collapsing, like a punch in the face. Fili liked someone. Ori forced himself to keep his face blank.

He was awfully glad that he _didn’t_ have a crush on the prince.

“I’ve tried to let that person know I like them,” Fili continued, glaring at the ground. “I’ve really tried, all the ways I could think of… except for directly saying something, because I wasn’t sure… well, I’m not very good with words, and I was afraid I’d muck it up, somehow. I think I need help to say the right thing. And you’re so good with words, so I was thinking you might help me.” He raised his eyes, and looked at Ori with an intensity that had the scribe shivering. “So, can you help me?”

“I suppose I can,” Ori answered, and he was very proud of the way his voice almost didn’t shake.

“Thank you!” Fili exclaimed, taking his hand and smiling at him. “You are the best, you know. Okay, so that person…”

“Boy or girl?”

“Boy. Very much a boy. He’s very clever, and so handsome, and very nice… but a bit shy, and not too confident, I think. I’ve tried to compliment him, but I don’t think he’s ever really believed me.”

“Then… start by complimenting him on his craft,” Ori advised, trying hard to remember how the declarations in his favourite sagas went. “Tell him about how what he did is really nice. If he’s a smith…”

“He’s a scribe,” Fili cut him.

Ori frowned. It hurt, somehow, that Fili would have fallen for a scribe who wasn’t him… but he couldn’t let that touch him. He had to be a good friend, since he’d never be anything but a friend.

“Ask to see what he’s working on, and compliment his handwriting,” Ori suggested. “If you can, say something about his turn of phrases, but praising the hand is always good because you don’t even have to really understand what’s said. You could say… you could say that it’s particularly easy to read and a pleasure for the eyes. Nori told me that once.”

“Praise his work,” Fili repeated, rubbing his thumb against the back of Ori’s hand. “I can do that. Then what should I say?”

“Hm… compliment his looks, maybe. Most people like that, even when they’re not vain… especially if you compliment something they like about themselves. And you’ll know they like it because they take a lot of care about it.”

Fili nodded silently, looking strangely at Ori.

“So… I should say he’s got… nice braids and a really cute beard, maybe?”

Ori winced, and chuckled. “Not the most artful way of saying it. But you could say it’s amazing that he has the patience of taking care of such beautiful braids… or you could ask how he does it and say you’d like him to teach you because they look so good.”

Ori did not think about what it would be like to have Fili show him how he took care of his hair. He did not think about touching that golden mane. He was a clever dwarf, and he did not have a crush, and he knew he couldn’t want that, now less than ever.

“Praise work, praise hair. What else?”

“Well, if you’ve just mentioned that you would like to learn how he does his hair, you could chose that moment to… to ask him out, and say that you… like him.” The words felt painful as he said them, but Ori refused to let that stop him. He had to be a good friend. “You could… maybe try… ‘You know, I don’t want to see you just about hair. I want to spend more time with you doing anything at all, because anything done with you would be amazing. I like you terribly, and being friend isn’t all I would want from you, if you like me too.’ Yeah. That. That could do the trick,” Ori decided. It was what he would have told Fili if he had dared. “Then you can invite him for dinner in an inn, or just to have a beer, or to do anything that you know he’ll like.”

“You think it’ll work?”

“It’d work for me,” Ori joked weakly, and for some reason it made Fili smile.

“Well, I think I’d better do that right now then,” the prince said, though he made no move to go away. “I’ve waited so long, I really want to know _now_.”

Ori nodded sadly, but Fili still didn’t move. Instead, the prince kept Ori’s hand in his, and even grabbed the other one.

“Hello Ori,” he said with a shy smile. “Say, have I ever told you how much I admire you handwriting? It is incredibly neat, and so easy to read. It’s a real pleasure for the eyes.”

Ori blushed, and frowned. This couldn’t be…

Fili let got of one of his hands, and brushed his fingers against one of Ori’s braids.

“You hair too is very neat, and I love how it looks. You’ll have to teach me one day, because it… it really looks so good, I’d love to know how to do my hair like that. Would you like to teach me?”

Too shocked to speak, the scribe only nodded. Fili’s smile widened, and he leaned forward until his mouth was almost touching Ori’s ear.

“Actually, I don’t want to see you just about hair. I want to spend more time with you doing anything at all, because anything done with you would be amazing. I like you terribly, and being friends isn’t all I would want from you, if you like me too.”

Ori shivered, and Fili pulled back, smiling shyly and looking hopeful.

“Is this some sort of a joke?” Ori asked, though he was almost sure of the answer already. Fili wasn’t the sort to joke, not with things like that…

“I’m as serious as anyone can be,” the prince assured him. “I like you so much… I’ve tried to let you know, but you’ve never really reacted, even though I thought… I really thought you might like me too, but you never answered to any of the hints I dropped near you, and I couldn’t be sure… and it would have made everything so awkward to ask you out if I weren’t sure… I didn’t want to risk losing you as a friend, but I just can’t stand anymore to not know…Do you like me?”

Ori just nodded. He wasn’t sure there was anything he could have said, not when he felt so happy. There were no words in the world to describe what it was like to realize that all the little things he thought he’d seen had been real. There were no words for the warmth on Fili’s hand on his, and even less to say what it was like when the prince pressed his lips against Ori’s mouth, both of them trembling from emotion. It was a little clumsy at first, but they figured it out fast, or maybe they were just both too happy to care.

“Dang, I forgot to invite you to have dinner someday,” Fili whispered when their lips separated.

“Then I’ll do it,” Ori replied with a quick kiss. “Would you like to go out with me someday? The Golden Lion does a terrific chicken stew, you’d love it.”

Fili chuckled, and kissed him again.

“Sounds like we have a date.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I BLAME ALCKALIN FOR THIS SHE GAVE ME ORI/FILI PROMPT
> 
> In other news, it's entirely possible I'll post more things about this 'verse in the future, because people gave me such nice ideas?


End file.
